Air Force Launches Ballistic Missile In Suborbital Test

The U.S. Air Force test launched a Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile on June 30, 2010 at 3:40 a.m. EDT from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Full Story.

Credit: USAF/Joe Davila

The United States Air Force launched an intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM) on a test flight early Wednesday, sending the weapon on a suborbital trajectory that reached thousands
of miles downrange over the Pacific Ocean.

The Minuteman 3 ICBM blasted off from a silo at California's
Vandenberg Air Force Base at 3:40 a.m. EDT (0740 GMT) on routine test flight
that was monitored by analysts at the U.S. Department of Defense and the
Department of Energy. Data from the test will be used to determine the
readiness of the U.S. military's ICBM fleet.

The launch sent the Minuteman 3's single re-entry test
vehicle about 4,200 miles (6,759 km) across the Pacific Ocean to a
pre-designated target near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The
atoll is home to the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test
Site.

"These launches teach us a great deal and require a
team approach," said Air Force Col. Carl DeKemper, the 576th Flight Test
Squadron commander and mission director, in a statement. "The launch was
part of our continuous self-assessment of the technical and weapons system
expertise of our Airmen and the powerful capability of the ICBM fleet."

Wednesday's test marked the second this month of the Air
Force's Minuteman 3 missile. An earlier test launched from Vandenberg on June
16. ?

The Minuteman 3 intercontinental
ballistic missileshave a range of more than 6,000 miles (9,656
km) and can travel at speeds of up to Mach 23 (15,000 mph or 24,000 kph) and
reach heights of up to 700 miles (1,120 km) above Earth.

That means that Minuteman 3 missiles fly higher than the
International Space Station, which orbits Earth at an altitude of about 220
miles (354 km), when they hit the peak of their trajectories.

Minuteman 3 ICBMs were first produced in June 1970, with
production stopping in December 1978, according to the Air Force fact sheet. The
Minuteman weapons system was first conceived of in the late 1950s as a strategic
weapon with an intercontinental range to serve as strategic deterrent force
for the U.S. military.

The missiles are housed in hardened underground silos and
are watched over 24 hours a day by launch crews consisting of two officers per
shift. The first Minuteman 1 missiles were deployed in the late 1960s.

Today, Air Force's Minuteman weapon arsenal consists of
450 Minuteman 3 ?missiles located at bases in Montana, Wyoming and North
Dakota, according to an Air Force fact sheet. The missiles are made of three
distinct stages that, when assembled, stand about 60 feet (18 meters) tall and
weigh 79,432 pounds (32,158 kg).

The Air Force has also participated in a series of other test
launches this year, including the April launch of the robotic
X-37B space plane ? dubbed Orbital Test Vehicle 1 ? from
Florida. That vehicle is still in Earth orbit today. [X-37B
spacecraft photos.]

The ICBM test flight also marked the 1,900th launch from
Vandenberg Air Force Base since 1957. ?The Air Force's 576th
Flight Test Squadron, 341st Missile Wing and 30th Space Wing all contributed to
the test flight, Air Force officials said.

Tariq joined Purch's Space.com team in 2001 as a staff writer, and later editor, covering human spaceflight, exploration and space science. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Google+, Twitter and on Facebook.